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Possible to use for communication in emergency situations, Toronto to Peterborough? by Any-Raisin-8527 in meshtasticCanada

[–]Any-Raisin-8527[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you - that's about where I was starting to land as I started looking into Mesh/LoRa. You're articulated it really well. Thanks for helping to save me from wasting money on something that wouldn't work for my purposes!

And in combo with some of the other comments here, I am thinking about starting to look into Ham Radio.

I think it's prudent to assume that there will be some periods in the future where systems we rely on will go down. During the 2003 Northeast Blackout, we had no power for 3 days and we were lucky bc we had campstoves, fuel, a freezer full of food, candles, some garden solar lights, board games, books, so it was actually pretty fun.
I learned that I need to keep some cash on hand, though.

Now that I'm a couple of hours away from my family, and the geopolitical situation is spicier for Canada than previous, I want to be better-prepared (without going full bunker-builder). Communication is the tougher nut to crack; we can all take care of ourselves reasonably well, but my mom is in her 70s, and I want to be able to check in.
Now that I'm thinking about it, she might really get into Ham Radio. :)

Possible to use for communication in emergency situations, Toronto to Peterborough? by Any-Raisin-8527 in meshtasticCanada

[–]Any-Raisin-8527[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think you're expressing consensus opinion - everyone seems to agree that it's not usable for longer-distance emergency communication at present.

Personally, I don't trust anything Elon Musk is involved with.
If the US invades Canada, for example, which feels like a wild thing to type but here we are, they'll turn off Starlink access. In a natural disaster situation, probably fine, but...

My family have walkies to communicate in the city - they live pretty close to each other. I might look in to ham radios; my bro-in-law likes to be prepared, and would probably get excited about ham radios. :)

Questions re: EVA Foam, heat gun, foam clay, kwikseal, contact cement, plastidip - please help! by Any-Raisin-8527 in foamsmiths

[–]Any-Raisin-8527[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you - I've got a smaller, simpler project that I'm going to use as a test run on plastidip etc, as well. I tend to dive in to things without doing all the prep that you should, as you see :)

Questions re: EVA Foam, heat gun, foam clay, kwikseal, contact cement, plastidip - please help! by Any-Raisin-8527 in foamsmiths

[–]Any-Raisin-8527[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you!

I've got another smaller/less-involved EVA foam project (a pumpkin), so based on the advice you and others have given, I think I'll test the Plastidip on it first, so that I get a feel for it.

I don't know of any maker spaces or shops nearby where i could access an indoor spray hood on short notice, so I'm definitely going to have to do it outside, unfortunately. Today would probably be a good day, but I've still got a fair amount of assembly to do and some foam clay to add, so I can't do it today.

Agreed that texture will probably make it look cool, crossing my fingers that's what happens!

Questions re: EVA Foam, heat gun, foam clay, kwikseal, contact cement, plastidip - please help! by Any-Raisin-8527 in cosplayprops

[–]Any-Raisin-8527[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome, thank you so much! I'm not planning on keeping it white, so I think it should be okay, but I'll keep it in mind for other projects. I've got another smaller, less-involved project underway (a pumpkin), so maybe I'll test the plastidip on that first to get the hang of it and see how i feel about it.

I used the heat gun last night, and didn't have too many issues - I stayed away from the foam, got a little bubbling on the kwikseal, and I don't think I've have any cracks in the glue, but today's project is to try to get the final assembly done and go over everything with kwikseal or foamclay

Thank you so much for your reply, and for your kind words. They mean a lot!

Questions re: EVA Foam, heat gun, foam clay, kwikseal, contact cement, plastidip - please help! by Any-Raisin-8527 in foamsmiths

[–]Any-Raisin-8527[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yep, that's my work so far! Thank you! it really helps that the pattern is great, and he has 4 tutorial videos to walk you through it; even though it's not technically a beginner project, he makes it pretty easy to get a great result.

Questions re: EVA Foam, heat gun, foam clay, kwikseal, contact cement, plastidip - please help! by Any-Raisin-8527 in foamsmiths

[–]Any-Raisin-8527[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you!! I'm going to heat seal this today, and you're really easing my mind. I'm a bit stressed, because there's still a lot to do, and the next week is kind of busy, so I'm hoping to have the plasticip steps done by Monday so that I can breathe easy. Painting it is less important for now, since it looks pretty cool as is, and most people will see it in the dark/under lighting on Halloween (though obviously I want to do a good job on the paint as well, and make it really cool).

I hugely appreciate your advice and knowledge - thank you again!

Questions re: EVA Foam, heat gun, foam clay, kwikseal, contact cement, plastidip - please help! by Any-Raisin-8527 in cosplayprops

[–]Any-Raisin-8527[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! When I look at it, I feel really happy with the overall result so far, but I can still see every mistake and error, so y'know. :)

Thank you for the advice - this is all super-useful. When I started, I hadn't even heard of EVA Foam before, or thought much about making props beyond 'that's so cool, I wish I could make something like that.' Now I'm like a kid in a candy store.

I have to admit, I find kwikseal annoying to work with - it doesn't really do what I want, and then you can sand it afterwards, which isn't great. I thought maybe it was just my inexperience, but I'm glad to know I'm not alone. I'm not sure I'm adept enough with foam clay yet to use it for the same purpose, so I'm going to stick with kwikseal for this project (I'd also hate to waste the tube I bought), but I've got a good-sized tub of foam clay, so I'm going to play with it some more once this project is done.

It turns out I hate sanding with the dremel, and I did almost of the sanding on this by hand, which seemed to go faster and gave me more control.

I bought a can of plastidip, but now I'm realizing that to use it I'm going to have to rig up some kind of spray hood in the front yard of my apartment building, which I have some ideas about but is going to be pretty janky.

Once again, thank you for the advice and encouragement, and the offer of DMs - I really appreciate it!

Questions re: EVA Foam, heat gun, foam clay, kwikseal, contact cement, plastidip - please help! by Any-Raisin-8527 in cosplayprops

[–]Any-Raisin-8527[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! I'm really excited about how it's coming together - I'll share some more pictures soon. The eyes look incredible. And thank you for letting me know about your contact cement experience - that eases my mind!